Names Affect Appearance and Personality
The name we are given can influence our future fate.
Shakespeare said that a Rose by any other name would not smell as sweet. But there’s evidence that suggests that he was wrong in this assertion.
Parents often give a great deal of thought to what name they will give their baby. Some parents want unique names that will distinguish their child while others choose names that are particularly feminine or masculine.
Sometimes parents may name for a loved one which may provide guidelines for choosing the name. In my case, I was named for two uncles who had died before I was born. Because of this, my parents wanted my first name to start with an N and my middle name to start with a C. My father wanted Nancy for my first name while my mother wanted Natalie. My father’s main opposition to the name Natalie was it was too “big” while my mother believed I’d grow into it. Apparently, I did! My middle name wasn’t so uncommon but they decided to spell it differently — Caryl.
A person’s name has been shown to be associated with a number of later characteristics. In eight studies conducted in two different countries, researchers found that a person’s name was related to what they later looked like. People were able to pick the right name for strangers more accurately than what would result from chance.
In these studies, there appeared that there were common perceptions of how a person with a certain name would look. This indicates that we have an idea of what is the“right” name for a certain face, which can be determined even in the absence of meeting or observing them. As it’s also been shown that names given at birth aren’t related to physical appearance at this time, this suggests that our name influences what we later come to look like rather than our appearance affecting the name we’re given.
Names may affect appearance on several levels. It could be the relationship serves as a type of self fulfilling prophecy related to our shared ideas of what names represent about a person. People with certain names may develop a specific appearance by adapting what they believe to be…
